Firehouse Overthrow

I guess we all have to write about politics sometime...

First, a bit of context. This past weekend, I traveled to see my mother in sunny Orlando, Florida, to share a pre-Easter brunch being held at her new digs. (It was top-notch, by the way. Should I ever find myself in assisted living, I want to go to a place that hires a chef to run its kitchen…) I flew down on the first flight of the day out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG, for the sake of future brevity). We spent the day together, after which I crashed at my sister’s home. She wasn’t there, but my brother-in-law, who was looking for an excuse to grill steaks, was, and we had a great time catching up.

I woke up at 2:30 this morning to catch a return flight at 6 am. I usually am not a “crack of dawn” guy, but getting through TSA in 15 minutes at both airports is a win. I boarded the plane intending to complete a handwritten draft of this essay. It turns out that waking up before the roosters two days in a row makes this nearly 60-year-old more prone to nap while someone else is driving/flying the plane, so my notebook sat unattended in the seatback pocket in front of me for the duration of the flight. I was, of course, excited to return home where the flood waters have receded to the point that we can see the ground again, and in that excitement the notebook remained in the seatback pocket, presumably to impress the next passenger or at least to provide paper for the next crayon-wielding five year old who sits in row seven.

This means you’re getting a rough approximation of the thoughts I have already written as I type this. I can only hope the thoughts and words improve with a second try.

I have avoided writing about politics in my essays. It isn’t that I don’t have thoughts about our current state of affairs; it’s just that I take a long view of the American political system. I don’t really worry about these fever-dream moments too much, since our history is rife with examples of corruption, poor decision-making, and ignorant governance. I just finished reading Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, in which he tells the tale of Abraham Lincoln’s ascent to the presidency and the unrest it caused in South Carolina, leading to the surrender of Fort Sumter and, ultimately, the American Civil War. Larson and others argue that equally to blame was the corrupt and weak presidency of James Buchanan, who did criminally little to squelch the southern insurgency when it might have been snuffed out in its earliest days. I offer this only to point out that the American project has had its issues before. Tea Pot Dome, anyone? Somehow, the United States has figured out a way forward each time we have elected weak or poor leaders, and I maintain faith that we will do so again.

And that is what this essay is about. I started thinking about this piece six or seven years ago when Anne and I would make the short drive to our local volunteer fire department’s firehouse to cast votes every couple of years. Our polling place has moved up the road to the community hall of a local church, though “Community Hall Overthrow” doesn’t have the same kind of ring to it, does it? I’ll stick with the firehouse.

American democracy’s resilience is based on the fundamental principle of occasional rebellion. Every two years (really every four years now since Congress isn’t much of a governmental branch anymore), we who are 18 and older are invited to “kick the bums out;” we have the opportunity to reinvent our political leadership from the ground up at least twice a decade.

But we don’t do that. The one thing the founders never really accounted for in the long term was the idea that we are often more afraid of change than perceived oppression and that their new country would provide as-yet-unrealized levels of comfort to its citizens, comfort being the great enemy of rebellion. So, as we sit in our super well-cushioned comfy La-Z-Boy chairs, we are much more willing to put up with poor leadership decisions and the drift away from the rights we have come to cherish, so long as OUR rights don’t seem overly impinged.

That’s the basic problem today; we are lazy in our citizenship. Inasmuch as I have been responsible for helping my students become more civic-minded and aware of how their country works, I admit that the results have been hit and miss. As with all things learned, some students find government, civics, and constitutional thinking native, while others couldn’t care less. The problem is that while a person can work to avoid the use of trigonometry in their lives after high school, they really cannot avoid the work of the government, and they cannot impact that government meaningfully for themselves if they don’t understand how it works. By and large, we would rather argue perpetually than find resolutions to our issues. Thinking about solutions is hard work; coming to agreements through negotiation requires us to approach one another humbly. It seems we aren’t good at either of these things.

I’m not saying we should all be running out and looting and throwing rocks. Actually, I am advocating something far more radical; do the work to know what you believe, then set out to convince your family, friends, neighbors, and the guy who bags your groceries that what you believe is the best way forward. Remember that you will run into others who have their own beliefs and reasons to vote the way they do. Many of them will be based on fears rather than hopes; do your best to answer those fears practically while reassuring them of the hope you have. Then encourage everyone to vote with you. America only works when people feel heard, and the best way to ensure that they won’t be heard is if they don’t speak or vote.

Citizenship isn’t easy, and neither is putting up with poor leadership. One requires real effort, while the other requires more tolerance than most of us have. Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, had to deal with the looming threat of a civil war over slavery, a more pressing problem than most that we face today, but his words speak to us, still, as fellow citizens and heirs of a common heritage:

“Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people…If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.”

Have faith in God. Have faith in each other. Take part in the work of making your community and your nation the freest they can be. And never miss a chance to speak up for what you believe.